Reflections on Spiritual Leadership

One of the greatest challenges of being a "spiritual leader" [haha I use this term very cautiously because I know I have so much more to learn as well and am desperately in need of being led and being taught how to lead] is leading your people to a place where God becomes so real to them that His Word burns inside of them and they desire so much for the life of God to move within them and lead their every thought, decision and behavior. That they get to the point where they want to know God for themselves, and there is no longer any need to push them towards seeking God, or to keep pulling them back from the all the things in this world that capture their hearts so easily.

And the reason why this is such a challenge is because you just CAN'T make people fall in love with God. You just CAN'T make people fall in love with the Word. You just CAN'T force God onto someone else. And every time they do inch closer towards loving God, you know 100% that it has nothing to do with anything you've said or done.

The paradoxical challenge of the spiritual leader is this: knowing that your one responsibility is to make Christ alive to your people and yet knowing that the Holy Spirit is the only person who can make it happen. That in spite of all your efforts, if the Holy Spirit doesn't move, if they don't respond to Him, then all is in vain. That I can repeat the same truths a million times and all my words will fall on deaf ears, and may even cause their hearts to harden even more, then suddenly one day it sparks something in their hearts, becomes like fresh manna to them, and they willingly seize upon the wisdom of those words. But it is not those words that did anything - if it was then they would've taken them in a long time ago. It was the Spirit of God unveiling them before their eyes. And my work, my responsibility is to keep on removing layer after layer after layer after layer of grime until He is ready to finish the job.

At the same time, there is also the challenge of building stronger relational bonds with your people that will ironically make them less dependent on you, less reliant on you, less in need of YOUR wisdom - and edge them closer towards God. If I can inspire my kids to think more actively about God, to pray more, to read more of His Word, to love each other more, but their eyes are still half on me, then that too is a failure of leadership on my part.

At times I wish it was easier, that getting them to love God would be like introducing people to my favourite chocolate and just sharing it with them and KNOWING that when it melts in their mouth, they would be totally won over too. I wish I could just throw some grand piece of writing at them and expect them to be immediately in awe of God. Sometimes I wish it wasn't such hard work, that I would see my fruits more easily, that they would live lives that would silence the critics that crush them with the weight of their expectations... but if it were so easy, then I would've failed as a disciple and a follower of Christ. 

Because I would've learnt nothing about the fellowship of victory and suffering with Jesus, I would've learnt nothing about the heart of God and His immense patience and mercy, I would've learnt nothing about what it means to build a work that is enduring, I would've learnt nothing of my limitations, I would've learnt nothing of my strengths, the fruits of the spirit would've had no opportunity to bear fruit within me, I would've never learnt the pain and the joy of sacrificing and giving up your life for someone else, I would've never learnt the greatness of the power that is released when God and man work as one - when weakness is overpowered by a strength that is all-surpassing and all-consuming yet gentle and loving; when selfishness is quenched by a love that is stronger than death, limitless in its capacity, unyielding in its generosity; when two become one and multiplies into tens and hundreds and thousands.